Etamnanki
''"We have decided to call them The Etak, short for Etamnanki: the twoer which may have inspired the story of Babel/" - Admiral Tumaini Psamtik '' The Etamnanki are a seemingly hostile race of aliens from a different space and time. It is believed that their space has physical boundries which prevent any outside access except through wormholes. Discovery The Etamnanki were first discovered by the Ironman in 2026. They were first observed leaving several small communications probes inside the nebula. The Ironman retrieved these probes and connected then to the computer, and found that the probes had altered their own programming to understand English. Against the objections of Matale Zahn, Admiral Psamtik had the probes repgramed to take up positions between the Ironman's position and Sol. The probes were sucessfully reprogrammed successfully and the Ironman was able to communicate with Earth. The Destruction of Earth Only a few days after regaining contact with Earth, the Ironman received video footage via the communications probes. The footage showed a fleet of Etamnanki ships and the Ironman, exiting a vortex in the Sol system. The Etamnanki fleet then proceeded to the sun, and used their beam weapons to cause the star to supernova. The footage was proven authentic by the ship's science department. The crew of the Ironman swore to take their revenge on the Etamnanki The Ironman's Retribution The Ironman entered Etamnanki space via a subspace corridor; the coordinates of which were obtained on the computers of the Sons of Kahless. Etamnanki Holoship The Ironman evaded the Etamnanki ships for many days until they encountered a ship which beamed every male off of the Ironman. The ship created holographic projections, and used the males' memories to create a recreation of a battle from the Hundred Years War. The females from the Ironman found the holoship and rescued the males. Further investigation into the ship found a hidden Zhen'tok warning beacon containing coordinates for one of their ships. The Unknowns The crew of the Ironman followed the beacons location until they found a Zhen'tok colony. The Zhen;tok had been able to hide several thousand people on their small colony from the Etamnanki. The crew of the Ironman was in the process of making a deal with these Zhen'tok when an Etamnanki ship entered orbit and moved into position to bombard the planet. Before it could start, another larger ship of unknown design jumped in behind it and obliterated it. The unknown ship then proceeded to attack the Zhen'tok colony. The Zhen'tok were forced to evacuate back to their mothership. The ancient superweapon The crew of the Ironman and the Zhen'tok discovered a derelict spaceship in close proximity to the Zhen'tok colony. When they boarded the ship, they found files referencing a superweapon built on the ancient species' homeworld in a last act of desperation to destroy the Etamnanki. The Zhen'tok and the crew of the Ironman travelled to the planet and retrieved the weapon from the surface. The Destruction of the Zhen'tok Fleet Soon after the Zhen'tok and the crew of the Ironman retrieved the weapon, the Zhen'tok received a distress call from one of their high ranking officers. The Zhen'tok believed that the call was a trap but still wanted to investigate. They left the weapon with the Ironman and warped to the distress call's origin. The entire Zhen'tok fleet was caught in a trap. Two Etamnanki ships fired on a nearby star and surrounded the Zhen'tok fleet in an energy field. It is believed that they were killed in the resulting supernova. Testing of Humanity With the ancient superweapon, the crew of the Ironman believed that they were in a position to finally deliver retribution to the Etamnanki. However, they needed to obtain a subspace drive from an Etamnanki ship in order to be able to track Etamnanki ships. The crew of the Ironman located a damaged Etamnanki ship and boarded it. When they finally reached the engineering portion of the ship, a voice, presumably the Etamnanki, told them that they could not remove the drive. The boarding party then proceeded to the Etamnanki command deck where Admiral PSamtik was temporarily possessed as a vessel for communication. The Etamnanki, through Psamtik, told the boarding party that the initial attack on Earth was all a test. He told them that they had the means to prevent Earth's demise, and all that they needed were the coordinates. The Etamnanki gave the Ironman the coordinates, and told Commodore Dmitrikov and Zahn that they would be tested again. It was unclear on whether he meant that they two would be tested again, or humanity as a whole. The boarding party was allowed to leave peacfully and the Ironman set course fo rthe given coordinates. the only two people to carry this knowledge are Matale Zahn, and Sergei Dmitrikov.